I caught up on this year's Tournament of Books a few days ago, including the intriguing notices that Fever Dream was getting as it made its run (as of today, having just won its semi-final bracket), and got it from the library today and finished it over the course of the afternoon. It's a very short novel, novella length in fact, but the main reason I read it so quickly was that I couldn't stay away from it, despite trying two or three times to put it down and do something else - it's intensely mysterious and dread-inducing, with a strong 'and then what happened?' (which is actually a 'so what's already happened, and what's really going on?') pull, which is reinforced by David's constant warnings that time is short.
Much of the book's unsettling effect arises from its oscillation between plausibly reality-based details and explanations (the suggestions of a toxin in the water supply, Amanda's convincing maternal feelings for Nina, the way Carla often acts entirely like a normal person would in her position, the handful of situational hints that ground Amanda and David's dialogue) and elements which seem to surpass rational explanation and operate in the realm of the unknowable (the happenings in the green house, everything about worms, the uncanny happenings with the children, the underlying causes and logic for what happens and what is important to Amanda's plight), without ever really resolving the dialectic between the two. There are also startling moments of out and out creepiness - especially Amanda's dream about Nina and her mouth.
In the end, there remains something cryptic and unexplained about Fever Dream, but that doesn't make it any less satisfying. I wonder whether this one will linger. I wouldn't be surprised if it does.
Much of the book's unsettling effect arises from its oscillation between plausibly reality-based details and explanations (the suggestions of a toxin in the water supply, Amanda's convincing maternal feelings for Nina, the way Carla often acts entirely like a normal person would in her position, the handful of situational hints that ground Amanda and David's dialogue) and elements which seem to surpass rational explanation and operate in the realm of the unknowable (the happenings in the green house, everything about worms, the uncanny happenings with the children, the underlying causes and logic for what happens and what is important to Amanda's plight), without ever really resolving the dialectic between the two. There are also startling moments of out and out creepiness - especially Amanda's dream about Nina and her mouth.
In the end, there remains something cryptic and unexplained about Fever Dream, but that doesn't make it any less satisfying. I wonder whether this one will linger. I wouldn't be surprised if it does.
